STV starts voting for People’s Choice awards

SUNSHINE Television (STV) announced that voting for its annual awards program seeking out the Philippines’ most popular automobiles starts today.

The three-month public poll for the Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards (AFPCA) features a banner field of candidate models vying for much-coveted honors. The AFPCA, which is marking its 10th year, is the country’s only award system for the automotive industry that determines the winning models through online public votes and unit sales, STV said.

The online poll is conducted at AFPCA’s Facebook page and on www.autofucus.com.ph. It can be viewed on both sites.

STV said online votes comprise 40 percent of a particular model’s total score while its unit sales make up 60 percent. Stradcom Corp., with the official sanction of LTO, will tally the votes.

“Since unit sales are now integral to the selection process, we wanted the AFPCA to become a more equitable merit program by leveling out the wide disparity between low-volume, top-end cars and high-volume, lower priced models.” said Ray Butch Gamboa, STV president and chief executive officer. “If the awards were kept at status quo, the high-priced automobiles would stand little chance of gaining the prized Automobile of the Year award simply because their off-take is understandably at a much smaller scale.”

Gamboa added that the AFPCA will have a separate Automobile of the Year awards for the Standard and Luxury classifications.

“The second amendment to the AFPCA selection process involves the frequency of votes,” said Gerry Aquino, chairman of AFPCA awards committee. “From one vote a week, participants in the online poll will now be able to vote once every day throughout the three-month period.”

STV said the Model of the Year awards have categories for subcompact, midsize and large sedan, sports/performance car, multipurpose vehicle, pickup, van, compact, midsize and large sports-utility vehicles models. There is also an open category for models that cannot be classified.

STV said its annual industry merit program also includes the Media’s Choice Awards, which are based on a model’s engine performance, safety features, value-for-money quality and design.

“The media picks emanate from more learned and knowledgeable scrutiny by people who actually evaluate and test-drive various models available in the market. Their views and opinions are of real value to both the motoring public and the industry,” Gamboa said.